


Here Beneath a Summer Sky

by orphan_account



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe, Banter, Early story Remus and James, Eventual Happy Ending, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, Falling In Love, M/M, Millennial Humor, Mutual Pining, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pining, Small Towns, Summer Love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-13
Updated: 2019-09-13
Packaged: 2020-10-18 01:54:08
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,951
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20631152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Remus grew up in a small town in the middle of nowhere, Texas. His life includes working at a tiny cafe, going to school, and lazing about near the pool in the backyard of the house he shares with his best friend, Lily.Sirius swoops into his life and wrecks everything he thought he knew–taking his heart and holding it hostage.





	Here Beneath a Summer Sky

**Author's Note:**

> This chapter mentions some hurtful things said to Remus at a young age regarding his being gay. No past trauma, non-con or anything of the sort.

There was something vexing about the man seated in the corner of the cafe–long black hair and a jawline that would make statues envious. His eyes were always fixated on something outside, irises lit up by the sunlight like molten silver. Remus wanted to touch him, run his fingers over his jaw and down his throat, feel if his skin was as soft as it looked, pale enough that it was obvious before he opened his mouth that he didn't grow up in southern Texas.

Remus was washing a table nearby, but he wasn't paying much attention to anything but the man. He'd been there before, and he'd be there again. It happened every Tuesday at 9am, just before the sun was high enough in the sky that the harsh, bright light didn't stream across the cafe. Remus didn't know his name, but he knew exactly what he drank–black coffee, no cream, no sugar. Sometimes he got eggs, overeasy, and some wheat toast that he chased the broken yolk around his plate with. It was shameful to admit that Remus would watch him eat and drink and even just stare out the window, like he was a painting that he wasn't sure if he wanted to purchase.

The man barely acknowledged Remus, only enough to take his coffee and sometimes order the eggs and toast before turning back to the window. Remus would sweep by every so often with the coffee pot, and the man would scoot his cup closer with his middle and index finger; Remus would stare at the ring on his thumb, the way it glittered in the light, and then he'd fill the cup. It was hard to ask the man's name, even harder to start a conversation.

The man wasn't one for talking, and he made it abundantly clear. His sentences were always cut short and he never tried to converse with Remus any more than necessary, and just because Remus had become comfortable making small talk with the other regulars and even strangers rolling through his small town didn't mean he had the guts to speak to someone who looked as though they had been carved out of marble. Even if that man had been coming in every Tuesday at the exact same time for the past three months.

The man didn't have the same accent Remus did–the slow drawled vowels and the clipped words born from the lazy way Texans spoke. The man's words were less drawn out, more annunciated, and if _ y'all _ ever slipped from his mouth, it would probably sound absolutely butchered. Remus liked it, even though the only things he said were a mumbled good morning and _ the usual _ if he wanted anything more than his cup of coffee. He always wanted coffee, and Remus was ready with a fresh pot just before he walked in the door. Maybe he was a little too ahead of himself, but the man never complained. Nor did he praise Remus for being ready, but whatever.

If the man had caught onto Remus' admiration, he gave no indication. He barely even looked at Remus, eyes always downcast when Remus came by to refill his cup or take away his plate. Remus wished the guy would look at him at least, especially when he gave him a smile because he _ knew _ his dimples were cute.

"If you stare any harder, your eyes are gonna pop out of your head," Lily said, bumping Remus with her hip. He staggered and knocked over the salt shaker as he tried to catch his balance, pinning her with a glare that he shot over his shoulder. 

"I'm not _ starin' _" he replied. He moved to fix the shaker, setting it upright before wiping up the salt that had spilled across the table. "I was admirin'."

The commotion drew attention from the few people in the cafe: an older couple in a nearby booth, a mother and her toddler, and the stranger Remus had been watching for the past five minutes. The piercing stare seemed to singe his skin, and the heat of a blush crept up his chest and over his face. He looked away, but the probability of those eyes reducing him to ash was relatively high.

"Look," he hissed, blush still burning fiercely on his face, "what you did."

Lily smiled at him, tapping his nose with her finger. "You've got his attention now, I'd say I did you a favor." Her accent was less noticeable than his, having grown up in a northern state, moving south only when her great grandmother had passed, leaving her house to Lily's parents. Her voice was soft and sweet, even when she tried to press Remus' buttons–or maybe _ because _ she tried to press his buttons.

The two of them had become fast friends years ago, and when her parents left and moved back North, they gave her the house, and she invited Remus to live with her. It was paid off and all they had to worry about was the likelihood of the well drying up one day–that would be an expensive thing to fix, but both of them tried not to think about it. Remus mowed the few acres of land every other weekend, and they both sat out back by the pool all summer when they weren't at work and had no school to worry about.

"I got his attention, but not in the way I want it!" He was exasperated, and he was certain if he turned back to look at the mysterious man, he wouldn't even be paying any attention to Remus any longer. 

"He's still looking at you," Lily offered, tilting her head to see past Remus. "Go offer him coffee or something."

"I just gave him more like ten minutes ago."

"That man drinks so much coffee when he's here that I think his blood has been replaced with pure caffeine," Lily was staring at Remus again, green eyes lit up with excitement. "And you know he only chugs it so you come by."

Remus _ didn't _ know that. There was no way that held any sort of truth. He was an early-twenty-something from a small town in the middle of fucking nowhere, Texas. People he had grown up with fussed over him, but they were the only ones. It was always about his freckles or his curly hair or the dimples that popped up when he grinned. Anyone who he hadn't grown up with spared him no more than a glance. His trips to the city for the bigger grocery store where they didn't sell milk for twice the price like the local one did, he was always ignored. People would look at his cowboy boots and his worn jeans and give him that awkward _ I see you but I don't know you _ smile that folks tended to give to strangers on the street.

"Doubtful," was all he said, pushing away the inner self deprecating dialogue that shoved its way to the surface.

"Oh, come on," Lily said, shoving his shoulder. "You always think people don't check you out, but trust me," she paused, raking her gaze down Remus' body, "people check you out. You're hot."

"I'm also gay. Infinitely harder to find someone." The fans overhead whirred and clicked, Remus eyeing Lily as she tried to summon a response.

"Lots of cowboys were gay."

Remus rolled his eyes and turned back to the table, wiping it down before pushing past Lily to drop the rag in the back. It was a slow day, and even the owner was nowhere to be found. She often hung around when it was busy, if only to tell them to get back to work, and squawk her famous "if you have time to lean, you have time to clean," line.

He returned with a pot of coffee, strolling over towards the man's table after stopping by the older couple's to see if they were alright. He got a polite smile and a "yes dear," and he continued down two tables until he reached the man's, who was staring off outside with one arm stretched over the back of his seat, the other rested in his lap. He wore all black and Remus wondered briefly how he handled Texas heat and the blaring sun in anything but light colors–obviously pants and a jacket were necessary for riding a motorcycle, but he could at least dress in lighter colors. 

"Would you like more coffee?" Remus asked, only then realizing how stupid it was to ask when the man's cup had been pushed towards the edge of the table, half full and no longer steaming. "Nevermind, dumb question."

The man looked up at him through the thickest lashes Remus was sure he'd ever seen, eyes twinkling. His lips twitched as though he was trying not to smile, and he actually spoke more than two words. "I would, thank you," he paused and watched Remus refill his mug before pulling it back by the handle. "Are you all right?"

Remus was puzzled, only for a moment, remembering when Lily had nearly knocked him onto his ass. "M'fine, sorry for the ruckus," he mumbled. He turned to leave, but the man spoke again.

"She's right, you know."

Remus lifted an eyebrow, clutching the coffee pot with whitening knuckles. "Sir?"

"I do drink a lot of coffee just so you have to come by more often."

Remus nearly spit his heart out onto the floor. "'Scuse me? I don't even know your name and you're already hittin' on me." He was far from offended, leaning more into _ horrified because is this guy actually flirting with me holy shit _, and the flush of his face likely gave that away. His heart hammered in his chest and he thought he was going to drop the coffee pot onto the floor.

"Sirius," the man replied, tipping his cup back to take a drink. Remus watched him in awe as he finished the whole thing, Adam's apple bobbing as he swallowed. He didn't offer up any more information and Remus was growing more anxious the longer he stood there.

"Okay, Sirius," Remus said slowly, liking the way his name rolled off the tongue. "Good to know."

Sirius gave him a half smile before pulling out his wallet from his leather jacket. 

"I'll be right back with your change," Remus said quietly after taking the proffered money and spinning on his heels.

"Keep it."

He left without another word in a sweep of cologne that Remus inhaled, trying to catch the last wind of it before it dissipated entirely and the only thing he could smell again was coffee and chicken fried steak. He watched Sirius leave, watched him through the window as he threw his leg over his motorcycle and clasped his helmet, and then as he took off down the dirt road until he couldn't hear the rumble any longer.

Only then did his blush fade, but his heart didn't calm.

────────⊹⊱✫⊰⊹────────

"He hit on me," Remus said, waving his glass full of colorful liquor around. "That was the first full thought he has ever said to me and he was hittin' on me."

Lily shoved down her sunglasses, looking at him over them like she was Audrey Hepburn in _ Breakfast at Tiffany's _, eyes wide and dramatic. "He what?"

"He hit on me!"

"What did he say? You and I have very different opinions on what flirting is."

Remus rolled his eyes and leaned back in his lounge chair again. The mid-afternoon sun felt wonderful, and he knew by the end of summer that all of his freckles would be on full display, over his shoulders and down his back, especially the ones smattered across his nose and cheeks. They were one of his best features, after all, so why not make the most of them. "He said you were right."

"I'm always right," Lily said matter-of-factly before leaning back as well, stretching her arms lazily over her head. "What was I right about this time?"

It was shameful to repeat out loud. It didn't sound as nice in Remus' voice full of uncertainty and unease–more a question than a recollection of what had actually been said to him. "He said he only drinks so much coffee so I talk to him."

"That is _ not _ what he said. You don't even talk to him, you just stand there stupidly like you might sick on your boots if he so much as bats an eye in your direction while you fill up his coffee."

Remus wrinkled his nose. "He said somethin' like that–look I don't remember what I did five minutes ago let alone four hours ago."

Lily snorted, but it was just barely audible over the cicadas and the wind rustling the trees. "You're hopeless. Only you would find a way to be offended by the object of your affection hitting on you. Isn't that what you want?"

Remus cracked open one eye, peering over at Lily, but she wasn't paying any attention to him behind her dark sunglasses. "It wasn't very romantic." 

"Oh, fuck off," Lily laughed. "Not everything is written by Nicholas Sparks."

Remus was well aware of that because if his life was a Nicholas Sparks novel, he knew a boy would have already said _ I love you more than there are stars in the sky and fish in the sea, _ and no boy had ever said anything even close to him. His experiences strayed between giving straight guys blowjobs in their bedrooms when he came over to teach them algebra when he was in high school and they wanted to experiment and "I'm not gay but you're cute and I wish you were a girl."

"Yeah, well," Remus said, sitting up, sliding his legs off the lounge chair until his feet hit the heated cement. He set his drink down, the little bit of ice that hadn't melted clinking together. "It could have been a better pick up line, it's like he wasn't even tryin'."

"Aw, are you mad he didn't offer to take you out for a night on the town? I'm sure the local pub is absolutely bangin' on a Tuesday night."

Remus paid her sarcasm no mind, stepping across the hot cement towards the edge of the pool. He tried to keep it clean, but leaves blew into it and sometimes an odd frog or two would find their way in. Then, though, it was sparkling blue and he could see the bottom clearly. His skin was hot and itchy and all he wanted was to dive in.

He didn't, opting instead to cannonball himself into the pool as close to Lily as he could without smashing his head against the side. He heard her shriek over the water in his ears, surfacing a few seconds later to grin at her, shaking water from his hair. It dripped down his face in tiny rivulets and burned his eyes, but watching Lily freak out over getting disturbed from her tanning was worth it.

"You're an asshole," she grumbled.

"It's only water."

"Water with _ chlorine _, do you know what chlorine does to hair?"

"Do you know that the sun can give you skin cancer?"

Lily ripped off her sunglasses and stared down at him, looking about ready to throw them at his head or even set him on fire. "We're millennials, I'd like it if the sun beamed me to death, then I wouldn't have to eat avocado toast and be a hundred thousand dollars in debt with a paperweight for a degree. Also I wouldn't have to deal with global warming anymore."

"Come in the water and quit being a downer."

Lily considered his suggestion, finger pulling at the tied knot on her hip. "Okay, but if you dunk me under I'm going to rip your shorts off and go inside."

"We don't have neighbors, Lil, I don't think anyone will see my dick except you, and while I know you've been quietly pinin' for me since we were kids-"

"Oh my god, shut up," she exclaimed, dropping her sunglasses on her chair before sitting on the edge of the pool to slide in. Ever cautious about getting her hair wet as always.

They fell into a comfortable silence, Lily tugging a pool raft into the water, crawling onto it and lying back down. Her persistence to be the most tanned person in the town was admirable.

Remus floated around on his back and closed his eyes, lifting his head so his ears were above water. He looked over at Lily with squinted eyes. "Are your parents ever comin' back?"

The only sounds came from the cicadas screaming for sex and a faraway lawn mower. 

Lily broke the silence after a bit with a quick shrug. "Dunno."

"Are you ever gonna move back home?"

Lily laughed. "This is home, I've been here for so long that I don't even remember the place I was born."

And that made Remus smile in return, even if she couldn't see it. In the middle of July in nowhere, Texas, floating around in the pool with his best friend was enough to make his heart sing with joy. Any of his worries melted down to something unrecognizable when they did this–work, school, debt, his family, his lack of a love life because James Potter wasn't gay and they were only experimenting until Lily would maybe one day notice him–none of it mattered.

Not even Sirius and his silky hair and that stupid half smile he had given Remus crossed his mind as he dipped back under water.

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me on [Tumblr](https://lecheesie.tumblr.com/)!


End file.
